It's a sad drizzly day in January. A little dog named Sir Barksalot is sitting on his windowsill, staring outside the window counting the raindrops falling down. He was just thinking about what he was going to do with his day when he heard the news on the radio: “It's January 15th, it's Blue Monday! The Most Depressing Day Of The Year. The term comes from the phrase “feeling blue” and is mostly caused by failed New Year's Resolutions, holidays that seem far far away, the dark and cold days, the lack of vitamin D and of course to a lot of people Monday is the start of a new workweek which is horrible enough already.” This day felt kinda lost to Sir Barksalot anyway, but just when he shook his head and was about to turn around and get back in his bed, something weird happened... The sun started to peek through the clouds. Parts of the sunlight made its way through the kitchen window warming up the carpet floor in the hallway. He decides it is a nice place to lay down and warm up. He finds a nice spot and gets comfortable. Just when he gets in his spot, a bird lands on the clothesline right outside the window. Sir Barksalot wonders if he should bark at it or not. Right when he was about to open his mouth the bird says “Shush! Please don't bark. I just saw something spectacular, you're not going to believe this! It was nuts! Like peanutbutterballs! You know, like these things humans hang in trees because they think we like to eat them!” Sir Barksalot rolls with his eyes and answers “OK go ahead, you have my attention.” The bird starts to rattle while he jumps his little feet up and down the clothesline. It's an incomprehensible and incoherent story and Sir Barksalot is tired of listening to the gibberish and starts to nod off. “HEY! Are you listening??”, the bird says. Sir Barksalot is fast asleep. The bird is annoyed and decides to fly off. Sir Barksalot begins to dream about a lake he and his people went to. In the dream he sees bones he can chew on, he is barking at other dogs and is running around as fast as he can. He is so into the dream that you can see his feet twitching and he makes a very low bark. He runs and jumps as high as he can to land in the water but right before his feet touch the water he is awaken from his dream and startled by the door bell. He starts to bark very loud while he's running to and jumping up on the windowsill in the living room to see who it is. He continues to bark hoping it scares off The Attacker. He finally can see who it is now: it's His Human!! “He didn't forget about me! Oh my God I'm so excited!!!” is what Sir Barksalot thinks while he runs around in the room. The door opens and His Human is standing in the door opening asking if he wants to go pee pee. “Doh! What do you think? Let's get outta here right now!” is what he barks back. Once they get downstairs His Human is about to open the door. Oh shoot, Sir Barksalot forgot about the rain he was staring at a little while ago. But then he realizes he has nothing to loose so he runs out the door and starts to stretch his little legs. Ahhhh how good it feels to sniff some fresh air! After walking around for a little bit, the Human opens the door to a car and starts to talk to Sir Barksalot. He is trying to figure out what he's saying but even tilting his head isn't helping him, it all sounds unfamiliar. Not one word he recognizes. “Wait what? Is this what the bird was trying to tell me? Was he trying to warn me?” All of the sudden it all becomes clear to Sir Barksalot and he starts to daydream. “We're going to the lake in my dream. I hope there are other dogs there to bark at. I can't wait to jump in the water”, Sir Barksalot thinks to himself. He stands on the front seat of the car looking out of the window hoping to see which direction they are going but it all looks unfamiliar to him. As they continue driving he starts to recognize where they are going... Grandpa's house! It is also a very nice place to go. He always gives treats and has a backyard where I can run around. Also there is a cat that I want to chase. Soon as we pull up to the house my Human opens the door and I jump out and run to the door because I know which one it is. I bark so that Grandpa knows we're here. The door opens and the first thing Sir Barksalot gets to see is a big treat coming his way. He opens his mouth and starts chewing on it. Grandpa says to My Human “He is such a cute little dog but he sure poops a lot.” “Are you kidding me? Of course I do, you keep shoving stuff down my throat! You might as well call me Sir Poopsalot” is what Sir Barksalot wants to say. But he keeps quiet and runs off to the backyard to start playing with the ball. But then it starts to rain again and His Human tells him to get back inside the house. Sir Barksalot starts to cuddle up in front of the fireplace and thinks to himself “This isn't such a Blue Monday after all. All I need right now is shelter, love, cuddles and food. I'm such a happy doggy!”
Written by Deon Cooper & Marianne Cooper-van der Veen